He claimed he had done it - a claim that neither Richard nor James contested.

James went first and succeeded, while Jeremy raised a cloud of smoke from wheel spin while trying to get to the stopping point. The test that followed called for each presenter to drive up a 1-in-3 (33.3% grade) hill, stop at a specified stopping point, put on the handbrake and get out, with £100 awarded for a success. James missed a turn and then got lost on the track. Jeremy came closest at only a second behind in the Rover, while Richard ended up five seconds slower. The benchmark was 1:11, and despite having more powerful cars, none of the presenters was able to beat it.

The power test consisted of timed laps on the handling circuit, with the mark to beat set by the Stig in a Datsun 120Y. Instructed to travel 40 miles from their starting point, the presenters mistakenly arrive at each of the three previous British Leyland factories, only to find each of them with a different lease of life, before ending up at the MIRA test track, described by James as an 'automotive torture chamber.' The journey served as a reliability test, but no presenter earned money because none of them had managed to complete the journey without having reliability problems. The presenters began the challenge at Warwick Services on the M40, where the trio revealed their choices: Segments British Leyland Challenge Main article: British Leyland Challenge Introduction & Choices

And powerslide the new Aston Martin DBS.

In a well-balanced show, James gets egg on his face.

Regardless, they insisted that in spite of reliability and build quality issues, that some of the designs they made were quite desirable.

Next year sees the 40th anniversary of the formation of British Leyland, and the trio thought it would be a brilliant idea to celebrate this automotive milestone, but unfortunately the producers told them that there was nothing to celebrate, because BL was a miserable disaster and everything they ever made was 'rubbish'.

Top gear season 10 episode 0